Fair rides as safe as Disney's, inspectors say

Fair-goers are whipped around on the Disk'O ride at the Orange County Fair on Thursday. CHRISTINE COTTER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Riders aboard the Tango ride are whipped through the air at the Orange County Fair. BRUCE CHAMBERS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Fair-goers reach dizzying heights on some of the rides at the Orange County Fair on Thursday. . CHRISTINE COTTER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Fair-goers are whipped around on the Disk'O ride at the Orange County Fair on Thursday. CHRISTINE COTTER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Ashley De La Rosa, 16, of Tustin and Gerardo Vargas, 19 of Santa Ana "Speed" at the Orange County Fair. The ride spins you high into the air as your seat also spins. BRUCE CHAMBERS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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From left to right, Page Corcoran, Lily Hunter, and Autumn Weaver, all of Fountain Valley, ride Cliff hanger which simulates hang gliding at the Orange County Fair. BRUCE CHAMBERS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Fair-goers get an overhead view from the Sky Ride at the Orange County Fair on Thursday. CHRISTINE COTTER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Fair-goers are whipped around on the Disk'O ride at the Orange County Fair on Thursday. CHRISTINE COTTER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Allie Triepke, 13, has a season pass to Disneyland and always hits up the rides.

But standing in line this week waiting for the OC Fair to open, she wasn't planning to spend much time on rides.

"I'll go on, like, a Ferris wheel," she said. "I'm not going to go on, like, the ones that twirl you around."

Temporary rides at fairs seem "sketchy," she said, because they're taken apart and moved around.

The discussion brought a smile to the face of Allie's mother, Michelle Triepke, as the family from Dove Canyon stood in line.

"Well, I guess I don't have to buy a ride pass, then," Michelle said.

Skepticism like Allie's is widespread. Al Scanlan, one of the two private inspectors who are checking rides at the OC Fair every day, said he hears it all the time when he tells people what he does.

But state officials say the rides at the fair are as safe as those at Disneyland or Knott's Berry Farm.

"We hardly have any accidents," said Nancy Medeiros, the senior engineer who oversees ride inspections for the state Department of Industrial Relations. "More of what we have are trips and falls and, you know, kind of nuisance-type things."

Day to day, the inspection of fair rides is largely a private affair.

The state has three inspectors who do about 1,300 total checks a year, on 980 rides. A ride is checked more than once if an inspection shows a problem that needs to be fixed.

But it takes them most of the year to get to all those rides. So most of the attractions currently twirling, flying and dropping at the OC Fair have not been inspected by the state yet this year, records show.

The operator, Ray Cammack Shows, is required to inspect them daily and document that to the state. Each ride has a foreman and a crew who do daily inspections, Scanlan said.

Before the fair opened, Scanlan and Rick Achard, two inspectors with the company Richard J. Coulter & Associates, spent a week looking at every ride, literally from the ground up. Each has more than 30 years' experience in the business.

Scanlan said temporary rides have advantages. Taking them apart every time they're moved allows inspectors to see wear or other problems on interior parts -- things that could be missed on a stationary ride.

"They're looking at stuff once a month that a park might not look at for five years," Scanlan said.

Most riders interviewed at the OC Fair said they hadn't put much thought into inspections. But they said the rides seemed safe, with good restraints and a solid feeling.

Bryan Tomlinson of Anaheim, who's been coming to the fair since he was a kid, said the rides seem to have gotten sturdier in the past 10 or 15 years.

"They feel more secure," he said after getting off Mach 1, a new ride that spins riders 130 feet high on a giant arm. "They used to kind of rattle."

After riding Evolution with his 9-year-old daughter, Kassidi, Patrick Tillich said he has considered the safety of rides but thinks those at the fair are safe.

"I mean, if they can hold my weight," he said with a laugh, pointing to his large frame.

Medeiros said rides have gotten safer over the years.

"Everybody's better," she said. "The manufacturers are better, the owners are better and we keep a close eye on everything. ... You've got to give a lot of credit to the owners. They see the ride every day."

Scanlan said he's seen good and bad in his career at both amusement parks and carnivals. But he said he'd tell his own family to go on the rides at the OC Fair.

An inspection of a temporary amusement ride takes one to three hours and often involves an inspector climbing all over it.

Nancy Medeiros, a senior engineer who oversees state ride inspectors, and Al Scanlan, an inspector with Richard J. Coulter & Associates who's working the fair, explained how it works.

"Before the ride even gets set up, you might be climbing the ride while it's on the truck," Medeiros said.

Inspectors check some parts of a ride for wear before it's set up because those parts are hidden once the ride is assembled on the ground.

Once it's set up, they start at the bottom and move around the ride, climbing up ladders and checking everything they can see.

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